Even if this little melancholy book is not my cup of tea, still I think it is so well written that I finished reading it. I like how the author create the Parisian streets, the rain scene and most of all is how the author interprets Autumn.
For me, autumn has never been a sad season. The dying leaves and the days that grow shorter and shorter have never evoked the end of something for me but instead brought with them anticipation for the future. In Paris, during these October evenings, there is an electricity in the air at dusk. Even when it rains. I don’t feel down at that time of night, nor does it seem that time is passing too swiftly. I have the feeling that anything is possible. The year begins in the month of October. That’s when classes start again and to me it’s the season to take on new projects. So if she came to the Condé in October, it’s because she had broken ties with some entire part of her life and she wanted to do what they refer to in novels as “turning over a new leaf.”
A sunny autumn afternoon where it would have been nice to work on new projects and where life could have started over from scratch.
In The Café of Lost Youth
Patrick Modiano
Autumn is my favourite season. The season of mature, harvest, in between of dying and a new beginning, colourful and golden. It looks like dying, actually it’s preparing the nature for the new beginning. Therefore, to encounter these beautiful sentences about Autumn in this book was a pleasure to me. May be this is my hope earnestly, especially in this year, I hope for it more than all the Autumns in the past. A hope for a new beginning.
A new beginning is also what the people in the Café of Lost Youth hoped for. The book sadly is everything but hope. As for me, despite getting tired of the current hopeless situation (only visa and finance, other things are wonderful), I still can count on a verse:
‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. ‘ — Jeremiah 29:11.
And Autumn is coming soon 😊
Song:
A song, about the last leaf of Autumn.
Here and there on the trees
many a coloured leaf can still be seen.
I often stand, lost in thought,
before those trees.
Letzte Hoffnung
Wilhelm Müller
Note:
I really love Autumn, here are more beautiful posts that I’ve written about Autumn. Come and visit:
https://thejourney-writing.com/2022/05/the-leaf-has-several-names.html
https://thejourney-writing.com/2020/08/september-morning.html
https://thejourney-writing.com/2020/10/fulfillment.html
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